Words of Welcome and Tribute
The priests in the parishes within the diocese of Tagbilaran will have new assignments this coming June 8, 2021, to be exact. In the parish of the Immaculate Conception of Baclayon our incoming parish priest will be Rev. Fr. Harold Parilla and the parish vicar will be Fr. Roberto Supremo.
I do not know personally, Fr. Parilla, yet, but i have read his two books: Hashtags for Seekers and Hashtags for Young Seekers. The foreword of the book Hashtags for Seekers was written by Cardinal Antonio Tagle, his professor at the Jesuit school. The cardinal has high praises to his former student – Fr. Parilla – one of the best in his forty years of teaching, according to the Cardinal. The cardinal thought Fr. Harold would write about canon law and speculative theology but he, instead, wrote on biblical musings.
His first book is dedicated to his parents, Donato and Elly. His second book is dedicated to his nephews, Antoine Miguel and Andre Benedict. With a description, the two nephews “littered” lola’s home with so much joy and pride.
The foreword of his second book, Hashtags for Young Seekers, is written by Dimples Romana who he was not able to meet in person at the time the book was written. This means that he and Dimples “saw” each other thru mobile phone communication. Dimples was introduced by Cardinal Tagle to Fr. Parilla. But everybody knows who Dimples Romana is. She is a famous ABS-CBN contract star who can be the protagonist or antagonist in any scene. She can be the maldita or the very saintly lady in a teleserye. In the current running teleserye entitled Huwag Kang Mangamba, she plays the role of Faith de la Cruz – the mother of both Mira and Joy. She is the famous kalansay in the teleserye and I am sure we will know more of her when the story continues to unfold the different events.
You must be asking, where I got these two books. These were given to me as birthday gifts by my classmates, Virgilia “Daya” Yap and her husband, the late Dr. Bobong Yap. I received these on December 11, 2019, right after attending mass at the church of Our Lady of Assumption. With another surprise, they were with a high school classmate whom I failed to see in years, yes in years. And she is Lourdes Cemini. I invited them to have breakfast with us in Baclayon – mga salin-salin sa fiesta ba. Dr. Bong and Daya, before leaving the house, gifted me with a sack of rice to be shared with the “people I care”. At that time Covid was still at Wuhan.
Anyway, we heartily welcome to Baclayon Fr. Harold and Fr. Supremo.
January this year, the bishop and the personnel board had their series of meetings re the assignment of priests. I was hoping for Msgr. Vicente Nunag to be brought back to Baclayon. And these are my reasons: I think I’m an advocate to church traditions. Perhaps in my young mind, there was already that picture of what a priest must be and ought to be. It was during Msgr. Nunag’s time that i truly felt the sacredness of the offertory, the way it was in my youth. Sa panahon ni Msgr. Nunag, hapit dili ko moigham sulod sa simbahan tungod sa kasagrado niini. Dili gyud mosugod ug CONSECRATION (bajaw) si Msgr.Nunag ug nagdagandagan pa ang mga iro sa sulod sa simbahan, ug ang mga bata naglakawlakaw pa. Kinahanglan, mangluhod gyud ang tanan. Mao gyud na nga adto ra ko molingkod sa ilawom sa koro kay maglisud ko ug luhod. Uwaw pud kaajo ug motindug ko unya ang tanan nangluhod. It’s really nice to have that feeling of a few moments in heaven. Mura jud ko ug naa sa langit ug motambong ko kaniadto sa misa ni Msgr. Nunag.
I always observed Msgr. Nunag at work before. He did his job like St. Joseph. He was a quiet worker. Look at the fence of the complex. For years, it was just made of plain hollow blocks, perhaps waiting to be painted and to be decided upon by the centro catolico or the parish council on the color of the paint/s to be used. Unsa man gyud?. Usa ra ka Domingohan ug sulti: pagtapok mo ug bato dinha sa daplin sa karsada sa inyong cluster kay ato ra nang kuhaon. And that’s what it is today – a work of creativity and wisdom.
Art is in his system and without so much cost. Look at the way Immaculata was reinvented. He created a separate gate for the students and the teachers. In the first few weeks of his assumption into office as director of the school, he made things possible. One time, he thought of relocating the basketball court, which had been reported by the parishioners as a real disturbance especially when games were going and mass was also going on. Without so much funfare, the Alejandro Ramo memorial court was born.
Subsequently, the following projects were materialized during his “regime”: the main stairway to the school and the school gate culled from the front gate of the convent beside the belfry supported by the Alejandro Ramo memorial funds contribution to the celebration of the 400 years of Christianity celebration. The front gate was widened to what it is now including the fencing project of the Immaculata compound.
As an administrator of Immaculata high school, Msgr. Nunag saw to it that the school was not on the red. There were always two sections in some year levels of the school and that was the first time it happened despite the presence of the public schools around. To cap it all, Msgr. Nunag has all the attributes to run an old town and an old heritage church like ours. We are very proud of him.
Before his transfer to the Cogon shrine of Birhen sa Barangay, we had a big event in Baclayon which was the concert in our town in time for the inauguration of the newly repaired, restored and installed pipe organ. This was courtesy of the Ayala Foundation. During this event, the Ayalas came in full force to Baclayon. Don Jaime and Señora Beatriz Zobel De Ayala came with the children: Bea Jr. And Patsy Hafner, whose husband played the pipe organ during the concert. This brought us back to the time when the Baclayanons attended the event and dressed up for the occasion. The decoration was superb, too. Thanks to the florist hired by them. The church and its surroundings seemed to be a picture of Fairyland. All these were made possible with the guidance of the good Msgr. Moreover, Bahandi showed its prowess in food preparation. And we are so proud of what we accomplished at that time.
Welcome father Harold and Fr. Robert Supremo. Finally a Jesuit is back to the church they initially built.
Msgr. Boy Nunag, we are still hoping and praying that you will come back to Baclayon especially in your retirement years.